A Whole New Mind

Daniel H. PinkA Whole New MindRiverhead BooksNew York2005

A summary presented via a collection of quotes and excerpts

Part One: The Conceptual Age

One

Right Brain Rising

Our Brain

1. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.

2. The left hemisphere is sequential; the right is simultaneous.

3. The left hemisphere specializes in text; the right in context.

4. The left hemisphere analyzes the details; the right synthesizes the big picture.

L-Directed and R-Directed

Left-Directed (L-Directed): sequential, literal, functional, textual, analytic

R-Directed: simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, synthetic

Leading a happy, healthy, successful life depends on both hemispheres of

your brain.

A Whole New Mind

Left-brain-style thinking used to be the driver and the right-brain-style thinking the passenger. Now, R-Directed Thinking is suddenly grabbing the wheel, stepping on the gas, and determining where we’re going and how we’ll get there. L-Directed aptitudes are still necessary. But they are no longer sufficient.R-Directed aptitudes—artistry, empathy, taking the long view, pursuing the transcendent—will increasingly determine who soars and who stumbles.

Two

AbundanceAsia

and Automation

Abundance

For most of history, our lives were defined by scarcity. Today the defining feature of life in much of the world is abundance.

Our left brains have made us rich. We spend more on trash bags than

90 other countries spend on everything.

Abundance has produced an ironic result: The very triumph of L-Directed thinking has lessened its significance.

The prosperity it has unleashed has placed a premium on more R-Directed sensibilities—beauty, spirituality, emotion.

In an age of abundance, appealing only to rational, logical, and functional needs is woefully insufficient.

Mastery of design, empathy, play and other seemingly “soft” aptitudes is now the main way to stand out.

Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but material goods have not necessarily made us much happier.

We quest for transcendence.

Asia

L-Directed white collar work of all sorts is migrating [to Asia and] other parts of the world as well.

The main reason is money. In the United States, a chip designer

earns $7,000 a month. In India she earns $1,000.

Many of today’s knowledge workers will have to command a new set of aptitudes.

They’ll need to do what workers abroad cannot do equally well for much less money…

…use R-Directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.

Automation

Human beings have much to recommend, but when it comes to endeavors that depend heavily on rule-based logic, calculation, and sequential thinking—computers are simply better, faster, and stronger.

Automation requires L-Directed professionals—like computer programmers, physicians, lawyers—to develop aptitudes that computers can’t do better, faster, or cheaper.

Three

High Concept,High Touch

The Last 150 Years

18th Century 19th Century 20th Century 21st Century

Agricultural Age(Farmers)

Industrial Age(Factory Workers)

Information Age(Knowledge Workers)

Conceptual Age(Creators and Empathizers)ATG

AffluenceTechnologyGlobalization

The Conceptual Age

We’ve progressed from a society of farmers to a society of factory workers to a society of knowledge workers.

Now we’re progressing to a society of creators and empathizers, of pattern recognizers and meaning makers.

In the Conceptual Age we need a whole new mind.

High Concept

The ability to…. create artistic and emotional beauty detect patterns and opportunities craft a satisfying narrative combine seemingly unrelated ideas

into a novel invention

High Touch

The ability to… empathize understand the subtleties of human

interaction find joy in one’s self and to elicit it

in others stretch in pursuit of purpose and

meaning

The Importance of High Concept and High Touch

A Master of Fine Arts is now one of the hottest credentials.

The number of jobs in the “caring professions” is surging.

For many in this new era, meaning is the new money.

What Does this Mean for You and Me?

We must become proficient in R-Directed Thinking and master aptitudes that are high concept and high touch.

We must perform work that overseas knowledge workers can’t do cheaper, that computers can’t do faster, and that satisfies the aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual demands of a prosperous time.

What Exactly Are We Supposed to Do?

Develop six specific high-concept and high-touch aptitudes that have become essential in this new era:

The Six Senses

Part Two: The Six Senses

Design Story Symphony Empathy Play Meaning

Design

Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is not merely functional but is also beautiful whimsical, or emotionally engaging.

Everyone, regardless of profession, must cultivate an artistic sensibility.

We may not all be Dali or Degas. But today we must all be designers.

Boiling FlasksCorning Glass Works, company designMuseum of Modern Art, Architecture and Design Department New York City (www.moma.org)

Story

When our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s not enough to marshal an effective argument.

The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability to also fashion a compelling narrative.

We are our stories. We must listen to each others stories.

“We had to do a good deed every day...”

John Hope Franklin, the late scholar of African American history, tells his son, John, about being a Boy Scout during the 1920s.

Hear this story at storycorps.org

Symphony

What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis—seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries, and being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole.

One of the best ways to develop the aptitude of Symphony is to learn how to draw.

A doodle by President Barak Obama

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to stand in others’ shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts.

It’s feeling with someone else, sensing what it would be like to be that person.

Empathy makes us human. It is an ethic for living.

Play

Play is emerging from the shadows of frivolousness and assuming a place in the spotlight.

Its importance manifests itself in three ways: Games Humor Joyfulness

Winslow HomerSnap the Whip1872

Meaning

We live in a world of breathtaking material plenty.

That has freed hundreds of millions of people from day-to-day struggles and liberated us to pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence, and spiritual fulfillment.

Auguste RodinThe Thinker (Le Penseur) 1902

The Six Senses

Design Story Symphony Empathy Play Meaning

Daniel H. Pink

A Whole New Mind

This summary was compiled by A Guillaume.